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| Page Views: 5,125 Last Visit to Israel: - | Israel: NEW Perspectives by gilabrand - last update: Jul 11, 2007 |
Making the years count | Shalom: What We Want Most of All |
Israel is the world's 100th smallest country (around half the size of New Jersey) and home to less than 1/1000th of the world's population. It's only been around for 59 years. But as the English poet George Meredith once said: Don't just count your years. Make your years count.
Israel gets a lot of publicity for all the wrong reasons. Without denying the problems, here are some of the things that this little speck on the map has been doing to make its' years count.
DID YOU KNOW THAT: |
|  | The cell phone was developed by Israelis working for the Israeli branch of Motorola, which has its largest development center in Israel.
Most of the Windows NT and XP operating systems were developed by Microsoft-Israel.
The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel. Both the Pentium-4 microprocessor and the Centrino processor were entirely designed, developed and produced in Israel.
The Pentium microprocessor in your computer was most likely made in Israel.
Voice mail technology was developed in Israel.
Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the US in Israel.
The technology for the AOL Instant Messenger ICQ was developed in 1996 by four young Israelis.
Israel has the fourth largest air force in the world (after the US, Russia and China). In addition to a large variety of other aircraft, Israel's air force has an aerial arsenal of over 250 F-16's. This is the largest fleet of F-16 aircraft outside of the US.
According to industry officials, Israel's flight security is the best in the world. America now looks to Israel for advice on how to handle airborne security threats.
Israel's $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined.
Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers per capita.
Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the world.
Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin - 109 per 10,000 people. It also boasts one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.
In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world. In absolute terms, Israel has a larger number of startups than any other country in the world, except the US (3,500 companies, mostly hi-tech).
Israel is ranked #2 in the world for venture capital funds, right behind the US.
Outside the US and Canada, Israel has the largest number of NASDAQ listed companies.
Israel has the highest average living standards in the Middle East. The per capita income in 2000 was over $17,500, exceeding that of the UK.
On a per capita basis, Israel has the largest number of biotech startups.
Twenty-four per cent of Israel's workforce holds university degrees -- ranking third in the industrialized world, after the US and Holland - and 12 per cent hold advanced degrees.
Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.
In 1984 and 1991, Israel airlifted a total of 22,000 Ethiopian Jews at risk in Ethiopia, to safety in Israel.
When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister in 1969, she became the world's second elected female leader in modern times.
When the US Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya was bombed in 1998, Israeli rescue teams were on the scene within a day -- and saved three victims from the rubble.
Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship -- and the highest rate among women and people over 55 - in the world.
Relative to its population, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth. Immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom, and economic opportunity.
Israel has the world's second highest per capita rate of new books.
Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in the number of trees, all the more remarkable because it has been achieved in an area considered mainly desert.
Israel has more museums per capita than any other country. |
And the list goes on... Israeli scientists developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer.
An Israeli company developed a computerized system for ensuring proper administration of medications, thus removing human error from medical treatment. Every year in U. S. hospitals 7,000 patients die from dosage errors.
Israel's Givun Imaging developed the first ingestible video camera, so small it fits inside a pill. Used to view the small intestine from the inside, the camera helps doctors diagnose cancer and digestive disorders.
Researchers in Israel developed a new device that helps the heart pump blood, an innovation with the potential to save lives among those with heart failure. The new device is synchronized with the heart's mechanical operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.
The Middle East has been growing date palms for centuries. The average tree is about 18-20 feet tall and yields about 38 pounds of dates a year. Israeli trees are now yielding 400 pounds/year and are short enough to be harvested from the ground or a short ladder.
Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the US, over 70 in Japan, and less than 60 in Germany. With over 25% of the work force employed in technical professions, Israel places first in this category as well.
A new acne treatment developed in Israel, ClearLight , produces a high-intensity, ultraviolet-light-free, narrow-band blue light that causes acne bacteria to self-destruct -- all without damaging surrounding skin or tissue.
An Israeli company was the first to develop and install a large-scale solar-powered and fully-functional electricity-generating plant, in southern California's Mojave desert.
ALL THE ABOVE while fighting for survival, surrounded by countries that seek its destruction, with an economy strained by having to spend more per capita on its own protection than any other country on earth.
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2004 NOBEL PRIZE: Two Israeli professors from the Technion in Haifa, Aaron Ciechanover and Avram Hershko, have been awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. They discovered a molecule called ubiquitin that marks unwanted proteins and sends a signal to the cell to destroy them. Their findings will help in developing drugs to fight cancer.
2005 NOBEL PRIZE: An Israeli professor from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Robert (Yisrael) Aumann, was named co-winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize for Economics, along with Thomas Schelling of the U.S. Aumann has paved the way for a better undertanding of conflict and cooperation through game theory analysis.
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If Moses had Internet, he wouldn't have spent 40 years wandering in the desert!
Go to this link for a detailed STREET MAP of any Israeli city:
http://www3.emap.co.il/eng_index.asp | | | Malcha Technology Park in Jerusalem |
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 Comments for gilabrand about Israel | | | | |
marcbrazil Fri Nov 16, 2007 09:22 UTC
Pretty good page about Israel, I am very curious about this country, lots of culture with many funny things to do! I love your page! | y2ketan2007 Fri Oct 26, 2007 17:06 UTC
Wonderful page on a great nation.Thanks for the information. | dynamon72 Sat Oct 20, 2007 10:14 UTC
You are right about Sbarro. It's patchy. Near the Red Square in Moscow is a Sbaro branch. Didn't think much of it at all. The one at the Ramat Aviv mall isn't bad, but the staff was not helpful | SLLiew Thu Sep 6, 2007 15:57 UTC
Excellent well thought of and well written tips! I like especially on local customs. I collect Coke bottles. It will be nice to have one written right to left in Hebrew :) |
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